Chapters:

Will died. An hour after he'd arrived at the hospital
apparently. The knife had gone through his heart and one of his
lungs (he'd been stabbed twice). The school was given a week off
because of it.

The boy that had stabbed Will (Eilarch) had been found on the
motorway 25 kilometres away! The police had said he'd had to be
running extremely fast for over 5 hours to get there that
quickly. He was given a 20-year sentence in jail and he was to
get mental help.

Dillim and Carol's boat left at 6pm, Dillim was having a last
look around the town. The man who bought the farm let them have
a look around it as long as they didn't break anything.

"It's all changed," Layower noticed. "The hen house has been
replaced with an ugly metal one, and they're using
machines to milk the cows! It's discraceful."

"All farms nowadays are like that," Dillim said.

They left after only 10 minutes, and Layower vowed never to go
back there. It was starting to get dark, so they went home.

When Dillim left Layower would have 9 and half months of
loneliness. Whenever he talked to people at his school they hid
stuff in their pockets and ran off. He hoped that someone new
would move to Neyunn, but it was in the middle of nowhere. A boy
called Francis had moved to Neyunn 3 weeks ago, but by 5 days
Layower caught him smoking with his new friends.

It had got dark surprisingly quickly. And there was nobody
outside, when usually at least the milkman's son would be around
vandalising the wall under the bridge.

When they went into the house all the lights were off.

"Mum? Dad!" Layower called.

"SSHHH!" someone cried. Layower turned on a light.

"Turn that off!" Dad shouted and slammed his hand against the
switch.

"What?" whispered Dillim.

"We have to be quiet," Aunt Carol, whispered back.

"Layower, remember when I said there was that guy killing
people in Australia?" Dad said. Layower nodded.

"Well, he relocated here and has hundreds of aeroplanes and
bombs," Dad continued. The government don't know how he got
them, but they think he going to blitz all the towns and cities
he can!"

"Why!" Layower cried, quietly.

"He's mad," Dad replied.

"Where's Aunt Valerie?" Dillim asked.

"She was among the randomly chosen to be an air raid warden,"
Dad said.

"That's just like in the war," Layower exclaimed.

"I know. This isn't a war though, just terrorism. Now we
need to be quiet!"

Nobody said anything for hours. Layower had never heard his
Dad sound more scared. In the silence, Layower had plenty of
time to think. He seemed to be cursed. First, when he was in
Mexico when he almost drowned and was lost for days, then the
rock-climbing and Diana, then he moved to Neyunn. His luck had
got even worse there. Van, the plane crash (which although
hadn't involved him, it had happened around him), Uncle Robert,
almost dying at the cliffs, Will being stabbed and finally -
CRASH!

"What's that!" Dillim shouted.

"They're here, they saw light!" Dad cried.

"Mum's out there!" Layower yelled. BANG. It was closer that
time.

"In the towns that were destroyed in Australia, nothing was
left!" Dad shouted. BANG. The windows on the East side of their
house shattered. BANG! There was crashing from upstairs.

"Shouldn't we evacuate the house?" Layower shouted.

"The bridge outside it sturdy!" Aunt Carol shouted.

The air raid siren started. It was similar to the Second
World War ones Layower had heard, yet different. He knew that if
it suddenly stopped, his Mum was dead.

They decided to run towards the bridge. Outside, everything
seemed to be on fire. The top of their house had been ripped
off, and just as they left a flame-bomb landed on it and the
house went up.

Before any time had passed, Layower and Dillim had lost
everyone else. All they could see was flames. All they could
hear was the high-pitched noises of bombs falling.

They got to the bridge, only to find Sarah (a girl in their
class) sitting over the body of her dead brother. She was
crying.

"Go away!" she shouted.

"This is the only safe place!" Layower shouted. BANG! The
ground shook, and Sarah fell into the river, screaming. Dillim
almost fell in, but Layower pulled him to the wall. The light of
the flash made Layower realise that Sarah was covered in her
brother's blood.

"Where does the river go?" Dillim asked.

"Into a lake towards the south, but there's a beech-like area
she'll be able to get off at," Layower said. "If she hasn't
drowned or been blown up."

Layower was shaking. He could see Dillim was too.

"Do you think we'll die?" Dillim asked.

Layower couldn't answer. He was hoping he wouldn't, but
something inside him made him think he would.

They stayed under the bridge for another 5 minutes, without
saying anything. Every now and again the bombs stopped, but then
the screaming started again.

"Can't the army come?" Layower cried.

"They've probably broken communications or something," Dillim
said.

Suddenly there was a massive crash and the bride caved in.

"Jump into the river!" Layower shouted, but it was too late.
Dillim had been crushed by a rock. Another one fell and hit
Layower on the head, and he fell into the river.

"Dillim!" he shouted. "DILLIM!"

He was being washed down the river and crashed against the
rocks. He was getting sorer and sorer. He grabbed onto the
first rock he could.

Down the river, he could see a body at the bottom, slowly
being washed down. It was Sarah! There was going to be no
survivors…

Everything started getting darker and darker…Layower lost
strength to hold onto the rock; he let go. He was washed down
the river more, while being bashed more and more. Then, all his
senses stopped, he could barely see or hear. He felt water going
over his head. Then he felt nothing.

*

It was cold. That was all Layower could feel; coldness.

He tried opening his eyes. It made no difference, everything
was black.

"Hello?" he said. He could hardly say anything.

Then, he saw a figure in the darkness.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"You are safe," a familiar female voice said.

"Who are you?" Layower repeated.

"I have been here so long I can hardly remember," she replied.

"Am…Am I dead?" Layower asked.

"No," she said.

"Then what am I?" he asked.

She said nothing.

Layower walked up to her, his eyes were adjusting to the
darkness. He then realised he was wearing different clothes to
the ones he was wearing before. It felt like he was wearing
nothing, but it also felt like he was wearing a robe of some
sort. It was odd.

The woman came into focus; she had brown hair, and was wearing
a robe as well, a green one.

"Hello Layower," she said. Then Layower recognised her. It
was Diane!

"Diane!" he cried. "But you died!"

"I don't feel dead," she said, smiling.

"How is this possible?" he said.

"We both died," she answered. "And we're here. I think this
is an after-world.

Layower looked around. "It's pretty boring."

"This is an after-world, but not the
after-world," she said. "I'm not able to get through to the real
one."

"Why not?" Layower asked.

"When I died, when I fell, you thought it was your fault," she
explained.